Amazing Spider-Man Family #2


 

Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciller: Ron Frenz

Synopsis: Spider-Man pursues killers who have just carried out a hit on a local DA's wife. 

Comments: We never see Aunt Anna in the present Spider-Girl issues, which makes me think she passed away in the interim. 



Not identified in the dialogue, but DA and his daughter are Rene and Simone DeSantos. Rene is a high ranking member of the Order of the Goblin cult of Norman Osborn and Simone is the "mean girl" at Midtown High after Heather Noble retired. This was published between Rene's appearances in Amazing Spider-Girl #25 and #27, so ongoing readers of that comic would recognize him. Rene's connection to Simone would not be revealed until Spectacular Spider-Girl #6. 



Rene reveals his wife Marlene was a corporate lawyer and that she had wanted him to give up his DA job to join in a lawyer job that was safer and paid better. Although it's written like a joke in Spectacular Spider-Girl #7 that Rene is an honest person, a corporate lawyer, this shows that he took the job for Simone's safety. Although joining the Order of the Goblin seems to cancel out this. 




The show Arrow came out years later and I doubt this was an influence, but on that show Malcolm Merlyn received training from the League of Assassins after his wife was murdered. He had been a fairly normal businessman up until then. While it's similar to Rene's origin, I'm sure it's a coincidence, because a traumatic event or "one bad day" sending you a down path goes back to Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. 




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